Sep 26, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox designated hitter Jose Abreu hits a single against the Kansas City Royals in the first inning at U.S Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
With two games remaining in the 2014 MLB season, the question some fans of the Chicago White Sox have is: Will Jose Abreu lead the majors in slugging percentage at the end of the 2014 season?
Abreu (before games on Saturday) has a slugging percentage of .574, six points better than Detroit Tigers catcher Victor Martinez (.568) and Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angles (.566).
In the past 10 games (before Saturday’s games), Abreu hasn’t been quite himself due to fatigue. Since Sept. 16 (10 games), Abreu is batting .189 with seven hits in 37 at-bats. He’s hit no home runs in that span and walked five times.
Slugging percentage is calculated by: “total bases divided by at bats: where AB is the number of at-bats for a given player, and 1B, 2B, 3B and HR are the number of singles, doubles, triples and home runs.”
Frank Thomas never led the majors in slugging percentage but did lead the AL in 1994 at .729. That strike-shortened season saw Jeff Bagwell lead the majors with a .750 slugging percentage.
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The last White Sox batter to lead the majors in slugging percentage was Dick Allen at .562 in 1974 in 128 games played as per baseball-reference.com. In second that year was Mike Schmidt (.545).
With Abreu being all but the AL Rookie of the Year, the 27-year old first-year White Sox player has given us a lot to cheer about this season.
In 154 games this season, Abreu has a .314 batting average (.379 on-base percentage) with 35 home runs and 105 RBIs. He’s totaled 174 hits on the year, including 35 doubles and two triples.
Abreu has also walked 49 times, but he’s struck out 131 strikeouts. He even has three stolen bases.
The final two games of the season should be interesting in what Abreu, Martinez and Trout do.
• Note: Special thanks to Barry Codell for noticing Abreu’s potential feat.